Mokosh may have started as “mother earth” in pre-Indo-European times, when a religion that focused on women may have been widespread. Some experts think she might be a form of the sun goddess Jumala. In 980 CE, the Kievan Rus ruler Vladimir I, who died in 1015, put up six statues of Slavic gods, one of which was Mokosh. He removed them when he became a Christian, though. Nestor the Chronicler, a monastery at the Monastery of a Caves in Kyiv in the 11th century CE, lists her as the sole female Slavic god on his list of seven. She shows up in the stories of a lot of different Slavic countries.

Mokosh’s pictures are hard to find, but there have been stone memorials to her since at least the 7th century. People say she is made of a wood cult figure in a patch of woods in the Czech Republic. History says that she had a big head and long arms, which is a reference to the fact that she was related to spiders and spinning. Spindles & cloth, the rhombus, and the Sacred Tree or Cornerstone are all signs of her.

In the different Indo-European pantheons, numerous goddesses talk about spiders and spinning. Mary Kilbourne Matossian, a historian, has pointed out that the Latin word for tissue, “texture,” means “to weave,” and that “tissue” means “something woven” in many languages that came from Latin, such as Old French.

Matossian says that the purpose of spinning is to make body tissue. The thread of life is the umbilical cord, which sends moisture from the Mother to the baby. It is twisted and coiled like thread on a spindle. The shroud, also called a “winding sheet,” is wrapped around a body in a spiral, like how thread loops around with a spindle. It is a symbol of the last breath of life. As the main Slavic goddess, the Great has many human and animal partners. Mokosh is the wet Earth goddess, and she is married to Perun, who is the dry Sky god. She is also linked to the adulterer Veles and Jarilo, the god of spring, whose name means “sun” or “day.” In addition, Jarilo is the God of Cattle and Abundance, so he is often pictured riding in a cart pulled by bulls. Some Slavic farmers thought it was improper to beat or spit on the ground. Practitioners believed that the earth was pregnant in the spring, before March 25.

, they wouldn’t build a house or fence, push a stake into the ground, or plant seeds. When peasant women went out to gather herbs, they would lay down and pray to Mother Nature to bless any herbs that could be used to make medicine. When Christianity came to the Balkan countries in the eleventh century CE, Mokosh became a saint named St. Paraskeva Pyanitsa, occasionally seen as a living embodiment of the day Christ was crucified, sometimes as a Christian martyr. St. Paraskeva Pyanitsa is called “L’nianisa,” which means “flax woman” because she is tall, thin, and has long hair that isn’t tied back. This links her to spinning. She is the patron goddess of merchants, traders, and weddings and protects her followers from many diseases.

She was often with the Suaje, godlike figures who spun cloth and flax into fine thread and told the futures of newborns in the same way that the Greek Fates did. In the same way, Mokosh is linked to the activity of spinning and to caring for and protecting the herd animals whose wool is used for this activity. Mokosh was honoured at all points of the year. At the beginning of spring, when she was pregnant with the coming harvest, she was observed, and when the harvest came, she was celebrated. She was praised for being good at everything that comes with being a woman and keeping a house.

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From the beginning, he was king of the magical land of Annwn, which he ruled with his beautiful queen. But as stories changed over time, he turned into a psychopomp and a bad Lord of the underworld. This change may have been caused by the fact that Christianity became very popular after it took over the Celtic realm. A lot of heathen gods were “demonized” by Christians to make Christianity look better.

Arawn was a skilled hunter, magician, and shape-shifter, even though he looked broken. He could change into any shape he liked. His wife had no idea what was going on, even though he had been pretending to be someone else for a whole year. Arawn was a hunter who often went on daily shooting trips with his dogs. With their red eyes and white ears, these dogs became Arawn’s symbol. As Christianity spread across the British Isles, those dogs started to look more and more like hellhounds. They would look for bad people who were going to “Hell.”

Arawn loves fall because it is the best time to hunt in the Northern Hemisphere. At one point, you could hear the barking of hunting dogs as they went after their owners’ prey. Swans honked as they moved to warmer places to get ready for winter. The Celtic year ended on Halloween in October. People have long thought that the night of Halloween is when the dead come back to life to cause trouble. Given that Arawn is linked to the future, this makes sense.

The Otherworld of Wales Annwn was a beautiful place, just like the Otherworlds that people from other countries wrote about. In the next life, everyone will be happy and at peace. But Arawn was the Lord or King, and neither death nor the future were the main ideas. Annwn used to be thought of as a Welsh island. Like in Greek and Roman myths, it might have been a hidden kingdom. The island of Avalon from the Arthurian tale was only a story; this one was real and beautiful. Lord Arawn and his wife, the unknown queen, made a paradise where people could rest and enjoy life. People thought he was a fair and just leader until he made them follow new rules and beliefs.

His queen may or may not have been the only family member Arawn had. We don’t know anything about them. Along with him, she ruled in silence. The story says that she really loved him, even though her king was being mean to her. Arawn shows up for the first time in the first story in this book. The story is about Arawn and how he could change how he looked. A man named Pwyll was hunting one day. The king of Dyfed was looking for a stag with his hunting dogs.

Before the Hunter could get to the stag, strange hunting dogs with white ears and red eyes attacked it and tore it apart. At that very moment, Pwyll was shocked when a mysterious rider showed up and said his name was Arawn. He lied to Pwyll and said he had come to Annwn to steal the king’s stag. Pwyll would have to pay for his dishonesty. Even though Pwyll was scared, Arawn’s words made him feel better. The Pwyll was asked to switch bodies with him for a year as a way to make things right. As a reaction, Pwyll agreed to fight Hafgan, who was his sworn enemy. Hafgan, another one of Annwn’s kings, fought Arawn’s attempts to remove him from power for a long time.

The guys were now in their new bodies after the switch was made. It was a whole year that Pwyll pretended to be Arawn. He went shooting during the day and ate with the queen at night. Besides that, Pwyll wouldn’t sleep with Arawn’s Queen, even though she thought he was her husband. Arawn took over as Lord of Dyfed after Pwyll died, but the two never slept together. It’s still not clear why Arawn thought this was the best way for Pwyll to make up for entering the king’s realm. He chose to take a break from his job as Lord of the Otherworld for some reason and see what life was like as a normal person. There have been stories like this before.

Before the end of the year, they changed back to their old forms when they were together again. Pwyll wrote down everything he did that year. Even though the Queens of the Otherworld tried to seduce him, he defeated Hafgan and kept his promise to stay single. I’m glad to hear that, Arawn. He also said that he had been good in Pwyll’s wife’s bed.

After meeting, the Lord of the Otherworld and Pwyll stayed close friends. We know this to be true because Arawn shows up again in the fourth branch of the Mabinogion. He gave Pryderi, Pwyll’s son, a gift while he was in this area. He made Pryderi promise to look out for the pigs from the Otherworld. He wouldn’t give them up until he got something in return. After a while, though, a con artist named Gwydion fab Don stole them. When he told Pryderi he was an artist, he got him to give him the pigs as payment. After some thought, Pryderi agreed to Gwydion’s offer of a trade in exchange for the pigs. But Gwydion took them without giving anything in return. To get back at Gwydion, Pryderi fired the people who lived in Gwynedd. It’s too bad that Gwydion killed him in that fight.

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He had three kids from his first marriage: Mitch, Airmed, and Étan. He used to have a son named Cian with Danu, his second wife. Cian married Ethlinn, the daughter of the evil Fomorian King Balor. Cian’s son Lugh was the sun and storm god who saved the Danaans. Lugh’s son Cu Chulainn was a legendary Irish hero.

In the past, three snakes tried to kill all the living things in Ireland, but Dian Cécht stopped them. Because it looked so bad, Dian Cécht voted to kill the baby of Dagda, the mythical father of the gods, and Morgan, his wife. As soon as Dian did this, she found three snakes inside the hearts of each baby. When they grew up, these snakes could kill all Irish people. He set the snakes on fire and dumped the ashes into the river. This made the water boil, killing all the animals that lived in it. The river was finally named River Barrow. It is now Ireland’s second-longest river, after River Shannon. This river is one of “The Three Sisters,” along with the River Suir and the River Nore.

King Nuada of the Danann was no longer fit to lead his people after he lost an arm in the First Battle at Moytura against the Fir Bolg. When the council chose King Bres, the Danann suffered a lot, and many people wanted Nuada to take back power. In the end, Dian was able to replace Nuada’s arm with a metal one, which put the king back on his seat. On the other hand, Dian felt jealous of his son Miach after Miach had Nuada’s original arm physically and magically replaced. Each son was just as good as his dad because he got his skills from him. Dian grew special herbs on the tomb where he buried his son. Because Dian was so angry, she threw the herbs all over the place, which made it harder for Airmed to identify them. To this day, we still don’t know what health benefits they might have.

Dian also had two other children: the poet Étan and Cian, who was born of Danu and married Ethlinn, daughter of Balor of the Fomorians. After the First Battle at Mag Tried against the Fir Bolg, the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomorians made peace by getting Cian married to Ethlinn. Things went well with the Fomorians at first, but not for long.

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He got the name because he lost a hand in one of the bloody battles to take over Ireland. Nuada was a good leader who made sure that everyone followed the rules he set up. Nuada’s sword is a powerful weapon that can easily beat any enemy when it is drawn. He was from Br na Bóinne at first, but when he became leader of the Tuatha dé Danann, the Dagda took his home away. Nuada’s marriage to Boann, the river goddess, did not produce any children. After many years of marriage, they got a divorce, and Nuada gave Bres the Emerald Isle. But this plan turns out to be a bad one.

King Nuada brought his men from the other islands to Ireland to find a new place to live. But it had been settled before, so when they got there, they did not have full control. For a while, he lived in Br na Bóinne, and the Hill at Tara was where he ran his court. Soon, Nuada began making plans to take over the island. He wanted to take the city back from the Firbolg and the scary Fomorians who had moved there.

Two major wars were fought over who would be in charge of Ireland. The Firbolg were fought against in the first fight at Cong. In their first fight with this group of people, the Tuatha dé Danann fought bravely and eventually won without losing many people. Even though they won, King Nuada was hurt, and a Firbolg fighter named Sreng took it over. As sad as that was, it normally wouldn’t affect the king’s job, but it did in this case. Nuada is always played by the book. The rule he made said that the king of his people had to be physically and fully whole. So, after losing one hand, he had to give up because he could no longer rule with both hands. As payment, that Firbolg fighter who had already taken off his hand was given back some land to rule. Seeing that he could no longer lead, he gave up power and let a guy named Bres take over.

Unfortunately, this choice caused yet another argument. There was another part of Bres that was Fomorian. He was connected to the gods of a Tuatha dé Danann and had married the goddess Brigid. While the fight between the Tuatha dé Danann and the Fomorians was going on, Bres stood with the Fomorians. The Tuatha dé Danann were his slaves for a long time after he beat them. Nuada was furious about his choice of a replacement at the time. He came up with a plan to restore his kingdom. His brothers were Goibniu, the god of smiths, and Dian Cécht, the healer. They helped him get a new hand. This one, on the other hand, was made of real silver. He was able to take back his place as king after getting the silver hand. Later, he used magic to make a new hand out of flesh. Once Nuada was able to get rid of Bres, he became king again. They had won, but they hadn’t yet fought their Fomorians to take control of Ireland. In this case, the party was too early.

During the celebrations, Lugh, a young man, showed himself to Nuada. He stepped up to help. Nuada agreed and asked Lugh for a plan on how to beat the Fomorians. On the other hand, Nuada knew that Lugh was really a half-Fomorian. Besides that, he was the grandson of the famous Balor of an Evil Eye. Because of the omen, Nuada had to get Lugh to help them kill his grandfather. The plan worked well in battle. Lugh killed his grandfather after Balor of the Evil Eye cut off Nuada’s head. But it wasn’t enough to keep the Fomorians from losing. Lugh took over from his father, King Fionn mac Cumhaill, as leader of the Emerald Isle and the Tuatha dé Danann. He had all the traits of a good boss, like Nuada.

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Taranis was known to all of them. So, he had to be a very important god to them. Seven Taranis chapels are still standing in Europe. One is in Britain, one is in Germany, one is in France, and one is in Serbia. People think that Taranis, whose name means “thunder” in proto-Celtic languages spoken in Europe, was the Celtic god of lightning and thunder. Some of his traits were like those of other Eurasian weather gods, like Thor, Perun, and Yahweh. The Romans were the first people to write about Taranis. Because of this, the Roman god of the sky, Jupiter, is the best person to compare him to.

A metal figurine is the only thing that can be touched that looks like Taranis. Like the Roman statues of Jupiter found at Le Chatelet, France, around the 2nd century BCE, it shows a man with a beard holding a lightning bolt in his right hand and a wheel with spokes in his left. In this case, the rims wheel led researchers to believe that the statuette was of Taranis and not Jupiter. Historians say that Taranis could have been a leader among the Celtic gods. He did have some flaws, though. There was a lot of change on Jupiter and Taranis.

Roman sources are the first to write down Taranis’ name. This is because the Celts of the Bronze Age did not have a common written language. In the first century CE, the Roman poet Lucan talks about the faith of the Celts in Gaul. He said that Taranis, Esus, and Teutates were the three most important gods. Lucan thought that Taranis and Teutates were like Jupiter and Mars, and that Esus was like Mercury. Teutates’ victims were drowned, while Esus’ victims were hung and cut up. In the “wicker man” tradition, criminals were stuffed inside a large figure made of thin wood. Some scholars think that this practice started with the cult of Taranis. It was then set on fire and burned.

A Taranis has many signs, but the most important ones are the lightning strike and the wheel with wheels on it. Taranis is shown by more than just chariots, storms, bulls, eagles, and different kinds of tools of war. People usually think of Taranis when they see lightning hits. Taranis is a Celtic god who rides a chariot and throws lightning bolts like spears. Before the Celts came to Britain, the Picts were a religious group who worshiped Taranis. In their art, lightning bolts are often shown.

A lot of different ancient societies respected the spoked wheel, but the Celts saw it as a special gift from Taranis. This sign can be found on many coins, amulets, and other Celtic European artifacts. Archaeologists can tell the difference between artifacts for Taranis and those for other sky gods because of the wheel. An important and well-known picture of Taranis and his wheel can be found on the Gundestrup pot, which was likely made in what is now Serbia.

In the minds of the Celts, the spoked wheel was a carriage. Like many holy figures, Taranis rode chariots through the sky and threw lightning bolts when he had to. The Celts thought that thunder meant Taranis’ chariot was coming. A carriage wheel was also used to represent the sun disc.

This vague idea of the “wheel of the year” was shown to the Celts by the wheel of Taranis, which was usually linked to Thor or the sun disc. The first wheels that were made had only four spokes, which represented the most holy days of the year, the solstices and equinoxes. In later years, the eight-spoked wheel was made bigger to include the four fire holidays of Samhain, Beltane, Imbolc, and Lughnasadh.

There are no stories from the past that talk about the Celtic sky god Taranis. In Ireland, Taranis is called Tuireann, and his code is kept alive in the book of stories called The Three Sorrowful Tales of Erin. Our story about Tuireann’s kids is called “The Sons of Tuireann.” In this story, three of Tuireann’s boys, Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba, decide to kill Cian, who is their father’s sworn enemy.

As Cian waved his druidic sticks, he turned into a pig to hide from his brothers in the crowd. Thanks to Brian, Iucharba and Iuchar were able to find their food when they changed into hounds. The three sons killed Cian and then had Tuireann try to hide his body in the ground six times, but the ground wouldn’t take it. Cian’s son Lugh sought the “erec,” or blood fine, from the people who killed his father by going to Tara and appearing in the court of a Tuatha de Danann. He had to get three fruits, a pigskin, a knife, seven pigs, a brand-new dog, and three yells on a hill to get to the place.

The boys of Tuireann were not sure, but they had to follow the erec. Lugh told them that the apples had to come from the holy plants in the Hesperides so that the Roman hero Hercules could finish his task. Lugh didn’t think his brothers would be able to get through even one of the challenges because they were all so hard. The brothers were able to win by using both physical force and lies. In the seventh and final job, all three were tragically killed. When they got back to Erin, Tuireann went to see Lugh to beg that his boys would get better. By saying no, Lugh made his anger over Cian’s death even stronger. He sang a dirge over himself and his boys and then laid down with them to die.

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Aengus was the name of the Irish god of love, youth, and poems. He lived on Br na Bóinne with his family. The god Dagda was his father, the river goddess Boann was his mother, and the gods Midir and Brigid were his brothers. Midir was his foster father, and Brigid, his mother, was a flame goddess who married High King Bres. He was young, which was one of his best qualities and often gave him strength. He was often able to trick people or get away with things on their behalf because of how smart he was and how he had grown up. He had four different guns on him. Two of them were spears and two were swords.

Besides that, birds would often circle above him. For him, they would deliver texts and do mean things. Most of the stories about Aengus are about him meeting his true love. It all worked out in the end, but he had to work hard and use his skills to make it happen. No other god was stronger than Aengus. Everyone in the Celtic group of gods was a strong god in their own right. On the other hand, Aengus stood out because he had such a wide range of personalities.

For heathen people, the god of love came from an affair. His father, the Dagda, had loved King Nuada of a Silver Hand’s wife for a long time. He was married to the river goddess Boann and sometimes went by the name Elmar. The marriage wasn’t working out, and Boann slept with the Dagda when Elcmar wasn’t around for a short time.

In the end, Boann found out that she was going to have a baby. She was afraid that her husband would find out the truth about what she had done when he got home. Because of this, she and the Dagda came up with a plan. Among other things, he could keep the sun in the sky for nine months. Elcmar wouldn’t know that she gave birth while he was away because it would look like she was only pregnant for a day. They gave the boy to Aengus’ half-brother to raise as if he were his own. They wouldn’t have to tell Elcmar that Aengus wasn’t his dad that way.

Aengus was a smart and sneaky young man who got what he wanted by being smart. Even when people were criticizing him, he always found a way to get back at them. With the help of his skills, he got through everything that happened to him, good or bad. In the past, Aengus and the Dagda worked together to take Elcmar’s house. With the help of tricks, the Dagda stole Elcmar’s home at Br Na Bóinne from him and his wife, Boann. They asked to stay for two days when they went to see him. In old Irish, though, a single day and a night could also mean forever.

At first, Elcmar agreed wholeheartedly, but later he realized he had made a mistake. The poor man lost his home when Aengus and the Dagda showed up, and he and his wife were already split up. They broke up in the end anyway. Aengus, on the other hand, used his father’s tricks against him. In this way, Karma tastes bad. In the end, Aengus fell in love with Étan, a beautiful human woman. But Midir, his brother and foster father, had always liked her, which made him sad. They fought hard to win her heart. In the end, Midir beat Aengus, and Étan picked him to be her husband.

Midir got what he earned, which was bad for Aengus. When his ex-wife found out about his second marriage, she was furious. To break up the happy couple, this witch turned Étan into a fly. Because of his skills, Aengus can recognize Étan in her new style, but she sadly died soon after. A woman got pregnant after she fell into a glass of wine and was sucked up. After Midir’s wife had died, Aengus found her and cut off her head as punishment.

Over time, Aengus’s dreams kept coming back to a woman. After just one short meeting, he knew he had to find her because he was deeply in love with her. His parents were so determined to help him find love and happiness that they asked a friend to help them. King Body Derg, the Munster, found Caer Ibormeith after looking for a year. After she left, Aengus went after her right away and finally found himself near a body of water called the Dragon’s Mouth. At this time of the year, he found the 150 women who had been locked up and made to live as swans for a whole year.

There was the woman who would become his one and only, but he couldn’t pick her out because there were so many of them. He made a deal with the guys who had already taken the women to free them. After the woman turned into a swan, he knew who his true love was and could marry her. People who were being held captive agreed to turn into swans, and their attackers did it. When Aengus realized it was his job to find her, he changed into a swan. When he found her, he grabbed her by the hand and took off with her. They sang a song that lulled their prisoners to sleep so they could get away.

In a different story, Aengus hadn’t been seen in a while. When he got home, he saw that his dad had left all of his things to his boys and nothing to him. Aengus was furious and determined to do something to get his money back. So he asked his father the same question that he and her father had asked Elcmar. His father didn’t figure out the trick, so Aengus was free to stay for as long as he wanted. As a result, Aengus got the family house. Even though they didn’t like each other, Aengus demanded that the Dagda rest there.

Diarmuid Ua Duibhe, who was Aengus’s foster son, became like a real son to him. The young woman Diarmuid loved was already together with a strong man. The family was so angry that they decided to get back at Diarmuid by killing him. Aengus felt sorry for his foster son because he had known love before and tried to keep him safe. He helped him get guns and gave him places to hide. But Diarmuid’s family found him and killed him anyway, even with his help. Aengus brought his foster son’s body back to his house and used magic to bring him back to life.

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Lugh was the Celtic god of trouble and was known as a trickster god. Lugh of a Long Arm was another name for the god of kings, justice, and power. In Celtic mythology, he was also a smart and skilled warrior who was an important part of many wonders. Discover how Lugh of a Long Arm became so well-known in the stories of his home country by reading on. There are many names for Lugh, but the name most people know him by is Lugh of a Long Arm. People gave him this name because of the powerful Spear of Assal he carried in battle. He was a good fighter and had a smart mind, which he often used in battle. He was worshiped by the Celts as their god of trouble, light, justice, kings, and rule. He had a number of honorifics.

People often wrote his last name as Lug, which could mean different things. This phrase may have come from the Old English word “laugh,” which means “to swear by.” As he was linked to serious vows, this translation is not completely wrong. It’s possible that his name means “bright” in another sense. People worshiped him as the god of light because of how powerful his spear was. Lugh had a staff that could not be broken, but he was also good with many other weapons. Lugh lived in Tara, which was the royal seat. His skill won him fame both on and off the battlefield, and one of his sons went on to become a legendary soldier in his own right.

Dúin Cedh was Lugh’s grandfather. He was a famous doctor in the Celtic pantheon called the Tuatha Dé Danann. These were the names of his parents: Cian and Ethniu. During the Tuatha Dé Danann’s fight for power in Ireland, her family fought against the Fomorians and beat them. Lugh felt pulled between two different worlds because of this, but in the end, his liminality served his purpose and helped him become the future king.

He could have come from one of two places: his parents never got married, or King Balor was told that his grandson would kill him. He locked his daughter Ethniu up in a house on Tory Island so she could never get married or have kids. Cian could get to the tower with the help of fairy Biróg’s magic. Following this, he slept with Ethniu and made her have triplets. Her father did find out, though, that she was pregnant. A servant gave all of the kids a quick swim in the water when they were born and then sent them on their way. One of the kids got away from the helper, though, and the fairy woman saved them. Lugh’s father raised him on his own after she gave him back to him. Some other people helped raise Lugh as he grew up, but it’s not clear what happened to Ethniu after that.

In addition to his parents, Lugh was raised by a number of mythical people. It was said that their names came from Celtic gods Manannán mac Lir, Tailtiu, and Gavida. Myths say that as he got older, he got married many times. Some of his women were named Beach, Bu, and Nás. Ibic was born to him and Nás, who was the daughter of a British king. The person Deichtine was either his wife or girlfriend. With this wife, he had the famous warrior C Chulainn.

Since he did so much in his “lifetime” and had so many powers, Lugh is likely one of the most well-known gods in Celtic lore. When he was old enough, Lugh went to see King Nuada of a Silver Hand in the court of the Tuatha Dé Danann at Tara. This happened before the fight between the gods and the Firbolg and the Fomorians, who were the first people to live on the Emerald Isle. In King Nuada’s court, it was expected that guests would bring gifts. Lugh described his skills that made him fit to work for the king.

It turned out that everyone he talked about had already said those things, as the king’s doorkeeper confirmed. Then Lugh used his intelligence to ask the doorkeeper if the king had a warrior who was a “master of all skills.” The doorkeeper answered that the king did not have such a warrior. This is why Lugh was made Chief Ollam, which means “master of all skills,” at the court of King Nuada. Nuada asked Lugh to help him plan for the coming battle because he knew that Lugh had been told to kill his grandfather.

There was a scary Firbolg that the gods had to fight before they could beat the Fomorians and take over the Isle. King Nuada hurt his hand in fight and had to give up, which was bad luck for the gods. As a rule set by King Nuada himself, only a fit king or queen could sit on the throne. In his place, High King Bres was made. Bres was half-Firbolg, just like Lugh, so he backed their cause. He made the gods work for the Firbolg for 27 years. At this point, Lugh’s grandfather, who was the doctor to the gods, made King Nuada a silver hand that healed him. When he was finally ready, Nuada removed Bres from power and became king. Once the Firbolg were beaten, Lugh helped King Nuada plan the war against the Fomorians. He talked to the Phantom Queen, one of the three faces of the Morrigan, about this.

Cian, Lugh’s father, was killed by Tuireann’s children before the gods ever fought the Fomorians. Three boys, Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba, found Cian, who had magically turned into a pig. They were almost able to kill them, but he changed back into a person to finish one more job. He told his successor to get payback on the person who killed him, and then he died.

The sons thought they had finally done it when they tried to bury Cian, but he kept coming back to life. Lugh was traveling one day when he came across an odd burying ground. He was confused and asked, “Who is buried here?” It broke his heart to learn that his father had been killed, but the ground told him what to do. In response, he had a dinner party and asked his boys to a feast, which they agreed to.

He asked the boys at the feast what they would need to feel righteous if their father were killed, and they said “death.” After that, he gave them some jobs to do, which they all did. But their father begged them to do the hardest job possible, and Lugh said no. So, they almost killed themselves while doing the task. After Lugh failed to save her family by giving them medicine, Tuireann also died from her pain.

The Fomorians and the gods got back together in County Sligo after the gods were taken prisoner and the Firbolg were beaten. Lugh may have come from the Fomorians, but he fought bravely for the gods anyway. Between the gods, there were many deaths. One of these gods was King Nuada, who was killed by Fomorians King Balor. But the dream said Lugh would kill his grandfather. He aimed his slingshot far away and hit Balor in the eye with a stone, killing him quickly. They needed death in order to win, and Morrigan gave it to them. The gods were able to drive the Fomorians into the water with the help of the Morrigans’ magic.

After the war, Lugh was made king of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Once the Firbolg and Fomorians were defeated, the gods were able to rule their new land in peace and wealth because he had shown that he was strong and loyal. When the ousted king Bres went to him to say he was sorry for betraying them, he was kind. They agreed, but Lugh insisted that Bres show the gods how and where to till the ground. Bres agreed to do what was asked.

There was peace and plenty in Ireland when Lugh was in charge. But the Tuatha Dé Danann knew they couldn’t keep Bres alive once they got what they wanted from him. Lugh came up with a clever plan: he had 300 fake cows made and filled with poisoned red milk. He put three gallons of the spoiled milk into pails and gave them to Bres. Bres drank what was inside. That’s exactly what Bres did, and he died very quickly. The Tuatha Dé Danann were finally given justice after being harmed and ruled over for hundreds of years.

Lugh was a god for forty years. A lot of people liked his wife Beach, but he got mad when she started seeing Ceramic. He killed her boyfriend and thought he was dead, but Cermait’s boys caught him and killed him in a lake to get back at their father. The lake was given the name Loch Lugborta. The death of Lugh meant that a Tuatha Dé Danann was about to die. As a spirit, he lived in Trảng, which is also called “The Land of the Young” in Irish and Celtic legend. There was a time when he went to the mortal realms and mated with a human woman. Their child, C Chulainn, would become Ulster’s famous hero and warrior. He once rushed to the side of the fighter C Chulainn when he was badly hurt and about to die. Lugh found his dead son and saved him.

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The Tuatha Dé Dannan, on the other hand, often fight these Celtic gods during their wars against Ireland’s first people. Instead of a dynasty, they left behind a group of blended families with children from several generations. These children are their most important heritage. Even though Neit was a god in the Celtic religion, his story shows that Ireland wasn’t just a Celtic place. Ancient and Celtic stories are mixed together in the Gaels’ myths.

There are no records left of Neit’s early life. He was linked to many figures in Irish mythology, so it’s not even clear which part of mythology he originally belonged to. Some records say that the Fomorians were the first people to live in Ireland. The first settlers, on the other hand, were able to easily defeat them because they were physically weak and mostly lived off of hunting. After that, Nemed and his followers showed up, and the Fomorians were told they had to pay a lot of payment. After the Fomorians kicked Nemed’s people out of Ireland, only thirty of them were left alive. They finally felt like they were in charge.

But they continued to live apart, so when the Fir Bolg came, they didn’t talk to each other. The last of Nemed’s people, the Tuatha Dé Dannan, finally got to Ireland after a long wait. Many Irish people believe that the Tuatha Dé Dannan are their gods, and they are the most well-known of the island’s mythical ancestors. Neit was linked to many fictional groups, and the fact that he switched sides a lot was a big part of his story.

Because they beat the Fir Bolg, the Tuatha Dé Dannan came to hate the Fomorians in the end. Even so, some pairs got married to the families of each other. Neit, Dagda’s uncle, was a very important person in the Tuatha Dé Dannan. At least one of the boys, though, became important in Fomori history. That’s not because he married a Fomorian woman. Different people say that Neit was the husband of Band and Nemain. Neit and his brother, who is Dagda’s real father, may have both come from the same Fomorian ancestor. If this is true, Neit gave up his old loyalty and joined his Tuatha Dé Dannan, his new wife, and his nephew.

The Cath Tánaiste Maige Tuired, also known as the Second War of Mag Tuired and Moytura in English, was the most important battle in the long war between the Fomorians and the Tuatha Dé Dannan. At this point, Tuatha Dé Dannan had one last chance to claim Ireland before the Fomorians took it over and ruled over the strangers. During their rule, the Fomorians put Bres, a cousin of Neit’s, in charge of the Tuatha Dé Dannan. Bres mistreated the Tuatha Dé Dannan, who were probably his cousins, to show his loyalty to his father’s tribe, the Fomorians.

When Bres’s uncle Nuada took over Tuatha Dé Dannan with the help of another half-Fomorian, Lugh, he begged his father, the Fomorian king Elatha, to step in and stop them. Balor of an Evil Eye, Neit’s grandson, agreed to lead Elatha’s troops after Elatha said no. Mag Tuired was the site of a terrible battle between the magical and physical power of the two sides. During the battle, both groups lost their leaders. Nuada died, and Lugh killed Balor, the Evil Eye. It was said that Neit had also been killed in battle. Even though the god of war had died, his people won in the end thanks to his equally violent partner.

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In old Celtic religion, a powerful god called Dagda (or An Dagda in Irish) was very important. The Tuatha Dé Danann, who were also called the “Tribe of the Goddess Danu,” saw him as a chief god. Gods called Dagda “The Great Father” and “The Mighty One among Great Knowledge” were kind and helpful. It was clear what his job was; he was the one who made the final choice about life and death. In early Irish legend, Dagda was like the Germanic god Woden in that he was a parent figure. The names of these two gods are related in many ways. Dagda was also linked to fertility and plenty. People thought he had two pigs, one that was always cooking and the other that was growing. In his yard, he had two fruit trees that bore berries all year.

The coire anisic, or “un-dry,” which is his huge pot and, like the cornucopia, gives us an endless supply of food, stood out. the lorg mór, which is a mace or big club with special healing powers that he carried with him. His third quality was that his huge harp, the Uaithne, controlled the weather and the result of battles. In Christianity, Dagda was often portrayed as clumsy, huge, and overweight, even though his name and other names all refer to him as a good god. It’s clear that he is a good god because his name comes from the Proto-Indo-European word dago-deiwos.

As his most common name, Dagdae Oll-Athair, means “good god, all father,” he is connected to the All-Father, the main male deity in Indo-European religions. In the same way that Odin was known by many names, so was Dagda. But his were a little more poetic and had less to do with death and damage. In Irish folklore, Dagda goes by many names, such as Riog Scribe, which means “the King of Speech,” Fer Benn Bruaich, which means “the man of peaks and coasts,” Labor Cerrce, which means “the noisy striker,” Brogaill Bromide, which means “the Large-lapped Farter,” and many more. He knew about 26 different names.

One of the many interesting things about the god is how he looks. He is also said to have a full, thick beard in addition to being very tall. The great and scary gods of Nordic and Slavic mythology are often shown as funny and awkward, while Dagda is often shown as awkward and funny. These stories come from a lot of different places. Some are Christian allusions, while others come from mythology that was around before Christianity. One thing that makes him stand out is his big, round gut. The mythical Fomorians, his enemies, laughed at his big gut, but he was able to trick them. His short robe showed off his huge penis, which hung down to the ground, and he was said to be barely dressed. The fact that Dagda is the fertility god is linked to the way he is described as sexual. The Cerne Abbas Giant is a huge chalk hill figure in Dorset that shows a big guy with his penis up and a big club. It may have been made by Dagda.

Both the Celtic god Sucellos and the Gallo-Roman god Sucellos lived at the same time and were worshiped by both groups. Through Sucellos, the Celts of mainland Europe are linked to the Celts of Ireland. “The good striker” is what the Proto-Indo-European root Kel means, which is where the name “su Kel” comes from. Sucellos was shown as a big man with a beard who carried a big serving bowl and a maul, which is another word for hammer. There are clear references to Dagda here. It seems that Sucellos had the most impact in the Rhone and Saone river valleys, where Roman and Celtic customs met. His real name might be Dagda, which sounds a lot like his own name.

The most convincing proof of Dagda’s power is the story of a battle in Magh Thread. Dagda was sent on a mission on Samhain that took him deep into the enemy camp where the Fomorians were living. Twenty measurements of fat, twenty measurements of milk, and twenty measurements of flour were used to make the food in his huge pot. They threw in everything they could find, from grease and lambs to goats and pigs. Then they told Dagda that he had to drink the mixture or be killed by pouring it into a huge hole in the ground. This is still done today as part of Samhain celebrations.

The story goes that Dagda ate the whole feast, scraping the bottom of the pit to make sure his enemies wouldn’t get the last laugh. After that, he slept with the daughter of the Fomorians’ head to get her to turn against her father and work for him. Dagda is a fertility and wealth god who is represented by being sneaky, sensual, and greedy. It’s possible that Christian criticism made the telling of this story even worse. A lot of Dagda stories are about having sex and eating.

All of these stories and their racy details can teach you about Ireland’s religions before Christianity and about the role of a ruler godlike Dagda. He is many things, like a fierce fighter, a sneaky trickster, a seducer, a provider, and the guardian of the cornucopia. People would gladly worship him as a god because he was seen as a god in their eyes.

In Europe, every male chieftain god may have come from the same ancestor. This includes Woden in Germany, Perun in Russia, Perkunas in the Baltics, Odin and Thor in the North, Orko in the Basque Country, Taranis and Sucellus in the Celts, and Zeus, Jupiter, and Mars in the Ancient Greeks. All of them are powerful hitters and fighters who are connected to the element of thunder. All of them are sneaky bad guys who can be kind, caring, or mean. We can find out more about our shared ancestry than we ever thought possible by digging deep into our past.

The story says that Dagda did not live forever. Balor, the harsh Fomorian leader, was finally killed by his wife Cethleann during the second attack of Moytira. Balor had been in charge for almost 70 years. This took place in Br na Bóinne, a place from mythology that is now linked to the passage tombs in the Boyne valley. The evocative mood of Celtic folklore is shown by the Dagda myth. It serves as a reminder that Ireland had a thriving society before Christianity came along. This can help us understand the historical ties that connect Europeans today.

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In Sumerian folklore, the goddess Inanna is talked about more than any other god. She is from ancient Mesopotamia. What is now Iraq used to be home to the old city of Sumer. Inanna is portrayed in different stories as either passionate and feminine, or violent, sexual, or even hostile at different points in her life. Inanna is the goddess of love, war, fertility, and power. She is known to loom over other gods. There were many people who liked her, but the farmers Enkimdu and Dumuzi stood out.

Even though Inanna first liked Enkimdu, her brother Utu eventually persuaded her to pick him instead. After that, she married Dumuzi, but their marriage was pretty rough. After seeing that her leaving didn’t change his behavior, she finally made him take over her job from now on. Ishtar was also very important to the Akkadians and the Assyrians. You could connect her to Astarte, a goddess from the West Semitic people. They thought Ishtar was so great that they put her on the same level as or even higher than Ashur, their most important god. About 2300 BCE, the maker first used the name Ishtar, which comes from the Akkadian language.

Throughout mythology, she took on many roles. As a goddess of opposites, like love and war, she was linked to death and disaster. She was a protector for prostitutes, and prostitution was freely done in temples that were dedicated to her. Ishtar was a lot like Inanna in a lot of ways, but she also showed up in her own special ways. Ishtar is adored as a goddess of love, sexuality, and fertility, but she is never shown as a caring parent. She rules over battle. That’s why pictures of her generally show wings and weapons. At first, it wasn’t clear if Inanna also came from a Semitic background. So, there was no link between the two spirits. They were thought to be the same god with different names during the reign of the Akkadian king Sargon.

Like the Roman goddess of the same name, Inanna had a close connection to Venus. Another possibility is that Ishtar’s place as a goddess of heaven plays a part in this. In many historical reports, she is seen as the Earth herself. People have linked the story of Inanna’s trip to the underworld to the way Venus, Mercury, and the Sun move around the sun every year. Because of this, she was worshiped as Venus and Ninshubur as Mercury. In ancient Mesopotamia, Venus was already linked to Inanna long before it was named as a constellation. With this information, we might be able to guess how long ago Mesopotamians first learned to recognize stars.

A lot of experts have different ideas about where the names of some Mesopotamian gods came from. There are questions about more than just Inanna’s name. This is because the thing she’s meant to represent isn’t as clear-cut as the things other gods represent. The Sumerian goddess Inanna was thought to be one of the seven most important gods. The other six were An, the sky god, the wind and storm god, the woman who made man, the sun and justice, and the moon and knowledge. On the other hand, we don’t know much about her Sumerian heritage. No one ever said who her mother was, and different myths about her father’s life give different versions of what happened. Some have said that the goddess was the child of the gods Nanna, Enlil, and Enki, while others have said that she was the child of the sky goddess An. But in all of these stories, Utu was his brother. In other stories, she was his twin sister Ereshkigal.

As a goddess with many sides, Inanna is shown by many things, even ones that don’t seem to go together, like love and war. She used the lion, the dove, the butterfly, the bat, the snake, flowers, fruits, veggies, and things that aren’t alive. As signs, she also used colors, stones, metals, and perfume scents.

Besides her connection to the afterlife, these images also show that she is a woman and that she is wise, brave, and bold. People have looked to Inanna for a long time as a sign of wealth and new life. For this reason, a bundle of spiral reeds, which is a common sign for farmers, is the most common goddess symbol for Inanna. Some people say that Inanna had. Ancient Mesopotamian writing was full of stories about Inanna, the goddess of love and beauty. In some of them, she seemed to take on the parts of other gods. This story is about a time when Inanna was still learning how to be a strong leader. On the banks of the Euphrates River, a huluppu tree once sparked the whole project. As Inanna soaked the tree in water, she thought about the day she would finally get a chair and a soft bed.

As they grew up, the Anzu bird, the “who cannot be charmed” snake, and the evil spirit Lilith lived in the trees. The thought of this made Inanna very sad, and she started to cry. She asked her brother Utu to help her scare the animals off the tree, but he said no. After another cry, Inanna called for Gilgamesh, who came and killed the snake. When the bird with Lilith saw this, it took off. Gilgamesh had the tree cut down, and then his servants used the wood to make him a throne and a bed. To thank Gilgamesh for being brave, Inanna gave him a drum with drumsticks.

After she told Inanna how happy she was about her “wonderful vulva,” she gave her the crown as a sign of respect for how grown up she was. She knew how great she was and set out to help Enki claim the “me,” which is the powerful list of both good and bad traits that make society work. Enki’s sukkah, Esimud, received her with open arms, and the two of them ate and drank until Enki was drunk. Enki began to toast and promised Inanna many things, such as the seat of kingship, the priesthood, the godhood, the truth, a trip into the underworld, a journey out of the netherworld, sexuality, and more. Fourteen times, they raised their glasses, and each time, he offered Inanna seven “mes,” which she gladly took.

After accepting the mess, Inanna was smart and got on the Boat of Heaven, taking all the gifts that Enki had given her while he was drunk. When Enki woke up and realized what was going on, he told his helper to leave with the goddess and the powers. There were several times they tried before the Boat from Heaven got to Uruk, but each time they failed. The people were then given the mes that Inanna had brought with her. Enki said that Uruk’s holy shrine would be where the stolen mes would be kept.

A lot of people think that this poem or song is one of the oldest pieces ever written about love. It was most likely written around 2800 BCE. Here, we learn about the ways that Inanna’s future husband, Dumuzi, tried to win her love. The poem also talks about a society that relied on farming and how farming got better so that people could get food.

This story is linked to the song “Inanna Prefers the Farmer” because Utu wrote it to tell his sister Inanna that she was going to marry a farmer. A farmer named Enkimdu was chosen over a hunter named Dumuzi at first. But Utu and Dumuzi were able to persuade her by showing her all the ways he was better than Enkidu. When Inanna finally chose Dumuzi, their happy ending in marriage was written about in a series of sensual love poems. The next story, “The Descent of Inanna,” is about a love story that doesn’t end happily.

Ereshkigal, the Queen of the Underworld, had just lost her husband, and the song tells of Inanna’s trip to the netherworld to comfort her. It was important for Inanna to hear her sister’s sad groans, even though she knew that the future was a place from which there was no way back. Nine days and nights later, she didn’t come back. She told Ninshubur, her sukkah, or private servant, that if she hadn’t, he should mourn in the ruin mounds, drum at the shrine, and pray to Enlil, Nanna, and Enki to bring her back.

As you might expect, Ereshkigal was wary of Inanna when she first came into the underworld. Ereshkigal told Neti, who was in charge of the gates, to keep Inanna from having power or clothes by making her leave one me at each gate. Ereshkigal saw her for the first time while she wasn’t dressed. Once Inanna had pushed her sister off the chair, she sat down on it herself. Anna told her she was wrong, and her sister killed her in the end. Her dead body was hanging from a hook.

Ninshubur would have done what she was told and gone to Enlil, Nanna, or Enki if Inanna hadn’t come back after three days. As the only one who cared about Inanna, Enki went outside and began gathering dirt to make messengers who brought food and water to Inanna. These animals were able to bring Inanna back to life. The judges, on the other hand, said she should be changed. They came up from the depths, even the demons, looking for someone to replace her. Dumuzi was sitting on the chair in a beautiful robe and didn’t seem to notice that Inanna wasn’t there. So, Inanna picked Dumuzi to take over after her.

Gilgamesh, the hero-king of Uruk, is the main character of this story. He faces death in his search for meaning and becomes the first hero in world literature. Anyone who has ever wondered why they were born after their death can understand Gilgamesh’s pain and the problems that his friend’s death caused.

The story about Inanna, especially in the poem “Gilgamesh as well as the Bull of Heaven,” talks about how she forced her father to let the bull of heaven go. What took place after Gilgamesh turned down Inanna’s love advances? In the afterlife, she went to An and told him she would have the dead eat the living if my father didn’t give her her Bull of Heaven.

The fact that Enkidu helped Gilgamesh kill the bull made Inanna even more angry. In the meantime, Enkidu had a dream that the gods had decided that he or Gilgamesh would die because they killed the bull. After that, Enkidu got sick and died. She is different from other gods and deities of the same kind, though, because she has many sides to her.

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